With the advent of wireless, portable communication devices, such as cellular telephones, cordless phones and the like, a telephone call can be received or made just about any place at any time. Calls may sometimes be received or made in environments that are noisy making it difficult to carry on a conversation, such as an environment with a compact disc (CD) player, tape player, television, stereo or other appliance playing or operating and creating distracting noise in the background. When a call is incoming and the volume of an appliance needs to be adjusted or the operation paused, there can be a frantic search for a remote control or dash to the appliance to mute or adjust the volume or pause operation while the call is in progress or at least while the call is initially answered and the person receiving the call can relocate to another room or area. A loud sound from an appliance may also be frustrating to a caller and embarrassing for the called person when the called person has to excuse himself while he searches for a remote to adjust the volume or moves to a quieter location. The volume of the appliance can also be so loud that the alerting tones from the phone cannot be heard resulting in calls being missed.
Missing a portion of a movie and having to rewind a tape or backup a DVD player can also be frustrating after receiving an unwanted telephone call, such as a call from a telemarketer.
Wireless, portable communication devices, such as cellular telephones, pagers and the like, can also be the creators of unwanted noise or signals in some environments. Facilities or environments where alerting signals from communication devices may be unwanted include quiet zones such as in hospitals, libraries, theaters or the like, and environments where radio signals from such communication devices can disrupt the operation of equipment or devices include for example hospitals, airplanes, construction areas where radio signals may be used to detonate explosives and the like.